DOYLE BRUNSON POKER BIO
Doyle (Texas Dolly) Brunson Poker Professional
Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson (born August 10, 1933 in Longworth, Texas) is an American poker player who has played professionally for over 40 years. He is a former world champion of poker and the author of several poker books.
The first player to earn $1 million in poker tournaments, Brunson has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets throughout his professional poker career, tied with Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth for the record. He is also one of only four players to have won consecutive main events at the World Series of Poker, in 1976 and 1977.
Doyle Brunson Early Life
Doyle Brunson was born in Longworth, Texas, a town with a population of approximately 100, and was the eldest child with two younger siblings. Because of Longworth's small size, Doyle Brunson frequently ran long distances to other towns, and became a promising athlete. He was part of the All-State Texas basketball team, and practiced the one-mile run to keep in shape in the off-season. Although he was more interested in basketball than running, he entered the 1950 Texas Interscholastic Track Meet and won the one-mile event with a time of 4:38. Despite receiving offers from many colleges, he attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, because it was close to his home. The Minneapolis Lakers were interested in Brunson, but a knee injury ended his playing days. He had taken a summer job and was unloading some sheetrock; when the ton of weight shifted, Doyle Brunson instinctively tried to stop it, but it landed on his leg, breaking it in two places. He was in a cast for two years, and the injury ended his hopes of becoming a professional basketball player. He still occasionally requires a crutch to get around because of the injury. Doyle Brunson changed his focus from athletics to education and obtained a master's degree in administrative education.
Doyle Brunson had begun playing poker before his injury, playing five card draw and finding it "easy". He played more often after being injured and his winnings paid for his expenses. He obtained a bachelor's degree in 1954 and a master's the following year. After graduating, he took a job as a business machines salesman, but on his first day, he was invited to play in a seven-card stud game and earned over a month's salary in under three hours. He soon left the company and became a professional poker player.
Doyle Brunson Poker Career
Doyle Brunson started off by playing in illegal games in Exchange Street, Fort Worth, Texas with a friend named Dwayne Hamilton. Eventually they began traveling around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, playing in bigger games, and met fellow-professionals Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts. Hamilton moved back to Fort Worth, while the others teamed up and traveled around together, gambling on poker, golf and, in Doyle's words, "just about everything". They pooled their money together for gambling, but after six years they made their first serious trip to Las Vegas and lost all of it, a six-figure amount. They decided to stop playing as partners but remain friends.
Doyle Brunson at GSN's High Stakes Poker Brunson finally settled in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Other than his poker success, his greatest achievement is probably the book that is considered to be the bible of poker: Super/System. Originally self-published in 1978, Super/System was the book that transformed poker by giving ordinary players an insight into the way that the professionals like Brunson played and won, so much so that Brunson believes that it cost him a lot of money. An updated revision, Super/System 2 was published in 2004. Besides Brunson, several top poker players contributed chapters to Super/System including Bobby Baldwin, Mike Caro, David Sklansky, Chip Reese and Joey Hawthorne. The book is subtitled "How I made one million dollars playing poker", by Doyle Brunson. Doyle Brunson is also the author of Poker Wisdom of a Champion, originally published as According to Doyle by Lyle Stuart in 1984.
Doyle Brunson continues to play in the biggest poker games in the world, playing $4000/$8000 minimum bets and also at the World Series of Poker. He won his ninth gold bracelet in a mixed games event in 2003, and in 2004 he finished 53rd (in a field of 2576) in the No Limit Texas hold 'em Championship event. He won the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour event in 2004 (garnering him a $1.1 Million prize), and finished fourth in the WPT's first championship event. Early in the morning on July 1, 2005, less than a week after Chan had won his 10th gold bracelet - setting a new record - Brunson tied the record by earning his 10th at the 2005 WSOP.
Brunson's nickname, "Texas Dolly", came from the incorrect reading of his name by Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, and it stuck. Snyder was supposed to announce Brunson as "Texas Doyle" (since he was from the state) but incorrectly read Brunson's first name as Dolly when announcing it. Many of Brunson's fellow top pros now simply refer to Brunson as "Dolly".
Doyle Brunson has the honor of having two Texas hold'em hands named after him. One hand, a Ten and a Two of any suit, bears his name as he won the No Limit Hold 'Em event at the World Series of Poker two years in a row with them (1976 and 1977), in both cases completing a full house. Doyle has expressed his displeasure at being known for what is a weak starting hand in Texas Hold 'em; in fact, in both 1976 and 1977, he was the underdog, requiring Brunson to come from behind both times. Another hand known as a "Doyle Brunson," especially in Texas, is the Ace and Queen of any suit because, as he says on page 519 of the Super/System, he "never plays this hand."
Doyle Brunson endorses the online poker room Doyle's Room. He is currently appearing in the GSN series High Stakes Poker.
As of 2006, his total live tournament winnings exceeded $4,800,000.
DOYLE BRUNSON WSOP FINISHES
Year Tournament Prize (US$)
• 1976 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship $230,000
• 1977 $5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw $80,250
• 1977 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship $340,000
• 1977 $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Split $62,500
• 1978 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud $68,000
• 1979 $600 Mixed Doubles (with Starla Brodie) $4,500
• 1991 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em $208,000
• 1998 $1,500 Seven-Card Razz $93,000
• 2003 $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. $84,080
• 2005 $5,000 No Limit Shorthanded Texas Hold'em (6 players per table) $367,800
Doyle Brunson Books
• Doyle Brunson's Super System: A Course in Power Poker, Published: 1979
• Doyle Brunson's Super System II, Published: 2004
• According to Doyle, Published: 1984
• Poker Wisdom of a Champion, Published: 2003
• Online Poker: Your Guide to Playing Online Poker Safely & Winning Money, Published: 2005
References
• Doyle Brunson et al. (2005). “My Story”, Super System 2. Cardoza Publishing, 41-68.
